


Her

by VSSAKJ



Category: Tales of Symphonia
Genre: Community: fic_promptly, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-20
Updated: 2012-02-20
Packaged: 2017-10-31 12:16:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/343969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VSSAKJ/pseuds/VSSAKJ
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the prompt: any, any, "Don't deny that you are afraid to go".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Her

**Author's Note:**

> In my opinion, the "because I hate you (and myself, and you who reflects myself), and you will hate it more than I do, and it will hurt you more than it will hurt me" is the only shape that makes Kratos/Zelos work ICly.

“Don’t deny it, old man.”

The drawl made Kratos’s shoulders tighten in alarm, his hand hovering inches away from the door lock as it had been for… far too many minutes now. He refused to look over his shoulder towards the owner of that voice, and instead spoke directly in front of him, “Deny what, Chosen?”

Zelos’s laugh, cruel and uncompromising, shattered against him. “You’re afraid. Afraid to leave this room. Once you open that door, the rest of the world comes in and sees the evidence.” A sound Kratos can identify as Zelos kicking the sheets away from his body, surely still bereft of clothing. “What you did becomes real.”

What sharp comeback is there to a statement like that? It’s true. He refuses to let his body show the conflict wracking him, and instead remains stiff as a statue, eyes fixed firmly on the door. Zelos waits for him, probably smiling wicked glee all the while, and he finally says, “I hardly did anything alone.”

What is that, some pathetic attempt to shift the blame? He can tell by Zelos’s silence that it wasn’t what the Chosen expected, and thinks maybe, maybe just now he can leave before—but then Zelos is laughing. Laughing and laughing and he refuses to turn, refuses to see the violence of Zelos’s mirth at his expense, stands and clings fast to what dignity he can still pretend. The noise stops abruptly and Zelos’s words pierce him without remorse, “You betrayed _her_ ~”

With the words put to it, he sways on the spot, choked by guilt and misery. His arm falls away from the lock to rest at his side, and he closes his eyes to blot out the reality he doesn’t want to accept. The sounds behind him are of Zelos rising to pull on some article of clothing, and the last he hears of his one-time bedpartner is a sneering, “You can’t hide from it forever, old man.”

As the door slid open and Zelos waltzed out, Kratos formed a fist and grasped at the air where the door had previously kept this secret. He was still standing there when the door slid firmly shut once more.


End file.
